Put a Stop to Emotional Eating

Emotional eating can be as damaging as any destructive habit. We have all eaten emotionally at probably more times than we would care to admit. As a society, most everything is surrounded by food. From a birthday celebration to signing a contract for a big sales deal to a fund raiser to sporting events. Regardless of the emotion 0r occasion, there is food to be had! We grow up associating everything with food. When is the last time you went to the movies with someone and they did not stop at the con session stand or got together with girlfriends to do something other than eat (okay maybe shop too) or went on a date night that food was not the center of?

Of course we need to eat, but it's when eating becomes triggered by an event or an emotion chronically that it becomes a problem. If you think emotional eating is a problem for you, you are most likely correct. If you are consumed by food, find yourself in the same eating patterns of over stuffing yourself when you are not hungry or go to bed every night wishing you had not over fed yourself, emotional eating is likely an issue that needs to be addressed.

Unlike alcohol or drugs or other destructive addictive behaviors, we NEED food. It's not something we can ever totally eliminate from our lives as easily as some other undesirable habits.

Below are some fantastic tips from Tom Venuto, a veteran personal trainer and respected authority on getting lean.


4 Quick Tips And 4 Empowering Beliefs About Food That Help Stop Emotional Eating Dead In Its Tracks By Tom Venuto

Entire books have been written about emotional eating and it can quickly become a deep subject if you let it. I believe however that most people over think it and that the fundamental issue here is to simply realize that people often eat in order to obtain a feeling or in response to a feeling.
(Kelli: People emotionally eat to gain pleasure or avoid pain)

In some contexts, this is appropriate, as in a holiday social gathering. In other contexts, it may be inappropriate, as in a binge at home alone in response to a stressful day or event.In other words, you may be eating for the wrong reasons or dealing with emotions inappropriately by using food. The real "kicker" is that you may not even be aware that you are doing it!

If particular eating behaviors are not serving you in a constructive way and you want to remove this negative emotional connection to food, here are 4 quick tips to stop the negative pattern and change it to something positive:

(Kelli: Do what you have always done, and you will get what you have always gotten. In order to change something YOU need to change. The definition of insanity is to do the same thing and expect a different result)

(1) First you must become aware of it when this negative pattern is occurring, because such behaviors often happen automatically on the non conscious level. Once you have this conscious awareness, then you need to...(2) interrupt or break the pattern immediately when you realize it's happening -- you could simply say "stop" to yourself and ask yourself "am I eating because I'm hungry and need to fuel my muscles and boost my energy level or am I eating for another reason?"

Then start asking yourself some questions that will generate the positive response you want. They can be simple and straight forward, or they can be blunt and outrageous. Ask yourself, "is it worth it?" or "is eating this going to move me closer to or further away from my goal?"
(Kelli: this is why writing goals and focusing on them each day is important)

Personally, I find that playing with the concept that "you are literally what you eat" interrupts the pattern quite well for me. When I ask myself, "If this food is going to become part of my physical cells, do I really want this to become a part of my abs... or my brain...or my eyeball???", then the answer is almost always a resounding "NO!"

(3) If you're eating for an emotional reason, find alternative and more constructive ways which serve you to obtain / satisfy that feeling you are after.

(4) Establish the right reasons for eating and develop strong neural connections and associations between food and those reasons through repetition/reinforcement.The 4 beliefs about food that will serve you the best in creating positive associations to healthy foods are:

1. food is for building muscle and other body tissues (good food is "construction material"... i.e. you are what you eat)

2. Food is for energy (good food is fuel)

3. Food is for burning fat (good food in small frequent meals stokes your metabolic furnace like logs thrown on a fire)

4. Food is for creating optimal health (good food contains every nutrient you need for optimal health) I eat specific (healthy) foods and avoid specific (unhealthy) foods automatically, because I am so strongly connected to the reasons why I eat. The best part is that it's completely automatic behavior - its not difficult, nor does it require will power anymore as it did when I first started, because those beliefs and behaviors are now ingrained at a neural/cellular level.I believe that anyone can break the negative cycle of emotional eating and reach this point of automatic positive eating behaviors, by identifying negative patterns, stopping them dead in their tracks when you become aware of them, by eating for the right reasons, by finding constructive alternatives for responding to emotions and by changing the way you talk to yourself repeatedly over time.

These may seem like simple ideas, but they are very powerful ideas, and they don't even require any physical effort on your part -- all you have to do is change the way you think!

END

I want to stress the importance of setting goals and catching yourself in the act. The more you catch yourself in the act, the more you will be able to catch yourself before you are half way through a candy bar and stop yourself from even bringing one into the house.

Here are a few other questions that work for me:

How is what I am doing now working for me? (meaning if the way I am eating and acting is not moving me closer to my goals, I have to stop and try something different)

Is this wise? Yes, its a simple question, but one of the greatest questions you can ask yourself

Is this moving me towards becoming a better me?

You can obviously apply these questions to anything in your life you would like to improve. Apply it and watch your world change for the better!

Have an incredible day!

Kelli
www.KelliCalabrese.com
www.FeminineFirmandFit.com
www.ArgyleBootCamp.com